Name of the Game
by chataclysmnoire
Summary: You have two choices. Either beat Hawkmoth and win PHENOM, or die.
1. Chapter 1

Marinette sighed as she placed the helmet back on her head and pulled the VR screen into place. Powering it on with a flick of the switch, she leaned her body back in her gaming chair and focused her mind as she launched PHENOM.

She felt the familiar pulling in her gut and the burst of adrenaline as she fell from the sky and dropped to the middle of the park. The soft grass buckled against the hard landing of her feet. She straightened her knees and began to look around.

She only had an hour to get in and get Kim. His mother was very specific that he needed to be returned from the PHENOM world in an hour or Marinette would not be getting paid.

Glancing to the left and to the right, her black hair fell in her face and she frowned. Black hair wouldn't do. Marinette walked across the grassy clearing of the park to the nearest store. As the door opened and she stepped inside, a customization window popped up after a PHENOMbot fed her some stale dialogue about whatever shop it was. iPerfect/i she thought, grinning.

Using the allowance of NOM-Coins she had been given for this mission, she elected to change her hair to blonde, and added length into a long ponytail. She also purchased a 10NC tan to mask her normally pale and freckled countenance. Kim's type was Chloé, Marinette remembered. The closer she could make herself appear to the stuck-up blonde, the more success she would have. This would be a job she would finish in fifteen minutes.

Changing her clothes to something more form-fitting and, dare she think it, sexy, Marinette's PHENOM persona reflected in the mirror looked just as unlike her as she could get. A devious smirk crossed her lightly made up lips. She made a few expressions in the mirror, pouting her lips this way and widening her eyes just so to convey surprise.

Thankfully she hadn't had to purchase much as far as cosmetic enhancement. She knew she was cute, and she already owned a few makeup packs in her inventory.

The blonde hair and tan skin would be enough to confuse Kim. He's a simple man.

Satisfied with the stranger staring back at her in the mirror, she left the customization shop.

The heels she wore clacked noisily against the cobblestones ground, and she had to be careful where she stepped to avoid the heel sinking between the poorly animated ground. Agreste and the PHENOM team had a lot of strengths, but some of their background work was shoddy, she thought.

Heading straight for the track field, knowing that Kim would be there flexing his pre-purchased muscles for equally enhanced women, she pushed her shoulders back. If there was anything Marinette had learned, it was that boys her age were so distracted by a confident beautiful woman.

They would let their guard down enough for her to grab them and drag them back to reality out of the PHENOM. She would collect the checks and game coins from their parents, they would be grounded for weeks, and she would be living pretty until another kid got stuck there for too long.

Being a virtual reality "assassin" of sorts had its downfalls, and one of which was how shallow and sad it really loved the opportunities it provided her monetarily, don't get her wrong, but she felt a little sorry for those boys. Their own lives were so grossly unfulfilling, they had to buy enhancers for personality and looks instead of trying to create it out in the real world.

She reached the top of the bleachers and slunk down the concrete steps until she was pressed suggestively against the fence. She saw Kim, along with a few others she recognized, and she let out a low wolf-whistle.

"Hey there, soldier. Care to spend some time with me?" she intoned in a breathy, nasal voice. None the wiser, Kim's persona started strutting toward her and she tried hard not to laugh as he climbed the stairs to her position. He honestly thought he was God's gift to the world.

She turned her body just so it would appear he was backing her into the fence. She knew his kind of guy. The one that loved to feel power over women. He shot a wide smile her way. "Don't mind if I do, gorgeous." He brought a (slightly sweaty) hand up to her face to brush a few flyaways from her tanned cheek. "Let's take a walk and get away from these other clowns. Kim doesn't like to share his toys."

Fighting the urge to roll her eyes and pretend to vomit from disgust at his comments, she nodded prettily. He placed his hand on her lower back and he escorted her back up the bleachers, his palm sticking to the satin of her dress. She simpered up toward him on the brisk walk to the park, the sun beginning to dim behind them in the sky.

The sunset bled hues of orange and yellow, the light flickering off the nearby chrome buildings in a beautiful display. Marinette kept her focus on that and not on the male chattering to himself at her side. Once they reached the park, they chose a bench a little off the path in a secluded area. The light filtered through the trees.

"So, what's a lady like you doing out here?"

"I just wanted to see the man I've heard so many people talk about. You look even stronger than they say!" She giggled to emphasize her point, widening her eyes dramatically.

He smirked and flexed his biceps, wiggling his eyebrows. "I am pretty impressive."

She coyly glanced away, and then back at him. "Y'know...the girls also say...no, I'm too embarrassed!"

"What? It's okay, I won't make fun of you. You can tell me."

"Well...they say you're a good kisser, and I was wondering if you were better at that, too." She looked up at him from underneath her eyelashes, fluttering them and biting her lip briefly, before flashing her eyes to his lips, and then returning to make eye contact.

He grinned. "Let's find out."

Internally, she smirked. This was too easy! As he was leaning in and closing his eyes, she pretended to follow suit. Just before their lips made contact, Kim heard a snapping sound. His eyes jolted open and he looked at the cool metal encircling his wrist. The short chain connected it to her wrist.

It took him five whole seconds to realize what was happening. Marinette knew because she counted. The expletive he let out as he jumped up and tried to break free of the handcuff was hilarious. Marinette quickly changed shoes in her inventory while he jumped around. Instead of the impractical heels that were there moments before, she was wearing her heavy combat boots.

She began stomping back to the middle of the park, large man in tow yelling at her. It was a normal Thursday night for her.

"Damn it, Marinette! Why? Every single time!"

She smiled. "I don't know, Kim. Why do you make it so easy?"

"I hate you."

"I know."

Reaching the main point at the fountain, Marinette pulled them both back to their reality. She opened her eyes in her room and pulled the helmet off her head, glad to be out of the PHENOM for the night. Her phone lit up seconds later, signalling the payment from her mission was received. Kim was going to be grounded for a week.

She slowly stretched her aching limbs and rolled her tense neck. It had been a long day and pretending to romance Kim- as lucrative as it was- was not her idea of a good time. Checking the time, Marinette saw it only took her 17 minutes. She was good at her job. Or...her freelance services she lent out to disgruntled parents. Technically, what she did wasn't legal in terms of game rules. But it paid well to cheat the system, and she was smart enough to do it.

"Marinette? Could you come downstairs? You have a visitor." Her mother's muffled voice came through the floor. She stood from her chair and opened her door. The hall light shone off the hardwood flooring, and she squinted.

Plodding down the stairs, one socked foot after the other, she rounded into the kitchen. Her eyes first caught sight of her parents with a bit of apprehension and nerves in their eyes. Glancing further around the space, she could see why.

Sitting at her dining room table was a man roughly as large as her father, but with a less gentle face. And in front of that man, whom she presumed to be a bodyguard, was Gabriel Agreste. As in, founder and C.E.O. of Agreste technologies and creator of the PHENOM system and all offshoots. As in, probably the third most successful technological giant of modern times, behind people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. As in, her parents' boss.

She balked nervously. "Um...Mr. Agreste...what brings you here?"

He stared at her, no emotion present in his gaze from behind red-framed horn rimmed glasses. "Miss Marinette, was it?" She nodded. "I have been informed that you have been engaged in...the bringing of persons back from inside the PHENOM beta."

Her cool expression belayed the terror in her mind. iI messed up. My parents are fired. They're sending me to prison. How can I talk my way out of this. Think, Marinette, think!/i

She opened her mouth to speak but was silenced with a raised palm. "Do not presume to lie to me, Miss Dupain-Cheng. I am aware of your activities as a rogue of the system and have been for some time. But that is precisely why I am here. Your services are required. Now, before I tell you what I need, let me be clear: what I am divulging is of the utmost top-secret. If you tell anyone- and I do mean any person at all outside of this house, you will be pulled immediately from PHENOM, banned for life, and your parents will no longer have jobs. Do you understand?"

The weight of the world was suddenly dropped on Marinette's shoulders, but she affirmed again with a nod, not trusting her voice. "I need you to bring someone back. Someone who has been stuck for a while. His body in this world has been stuck in a coma, and I fear that if we don't get him back to reality soon, he will die."

She sucked in a breath. She had never heard of that happening before.

Still, her curiosity got the better of her. "Who, sir?"

"My son, Adrien."


	2. Chapter 2

"Being human totally sucks most of the time. Videogames are the only thing that make life bearable."

"I-I'm sorry, sir. Your son? How long has he been stuck in PHENOM?" Marinette asked.

She honestly couldn't remember Gabriel Agreste having a son. Celebrity gossip was a bit behind her. She was lucky she knew basics. Her best guess was that his son was some whiny teenage boy, which wasn't much different from what she was used to.

"Over a month. Miss Dupain-Cheng, we have tried quite a few things to expedite his return. We don't know if he's stuck by a freak accident or by choice. This is the first we've heard of this happening."

She nodded. "Right. But...why me? I know I'm not the only one breaking the rules. You could choose anyone."

Gabriel steepled his hands together on the table. "To speak frankly? You're the best player in Paris, second only to my son. You're the natural choice." His head inclined gently towards her, in a mild sign of respect.

It was one thing to be the producer of the game- it was another, entirely, to be the best. And being called the best of the best by someone she thought was the best? It rendered her speechless.

"Oh."

"I need you to agree to help. There are forms you must sign and details to get squared away."

His bodyguard passed him a large manila envelope, sliding out the stack of papers. Marinette got a headache just looking at them and imagining the sheer amount of legal jargon. A fountain pen was passed her way and she skimmed each document, signing away.

"How long do I have to make this choice?"

"Tonight is the only time you'll be given. But, may I remind you, you really don't have a choice. Tomorrow morning, you will go in. And you will not return until you have my son."

"Only me?"

"Only you. My team will provide you with 10,000 NOM-Coins to cover any expenses necessary for the trip."

She paused from her signing of the stack. "That's insane. You don't actually think it'll take that much?"

He let out a lengthy breath. He was clearly tired of the conversation. "You will be prepared for any outcome. It's hard to say what you will face. Adrien has always been…" he paused, searching for the right word, "creative. If he's in there because he wants to be, as I suspect he is, there's no telling what he's put in place to stop from leaving."

Marinette didn't like the way Gabriel referred to his son being creative as a bad thing. It left a sour taste in her mouth."But...if that's the case...no offense, but why bother if that's where he wants to be?"

Patience wearing thin, Gabriel snapped. "He's been monitored by the best private doctors money can buy. His vitals have been slowly slipping, enough to where we're concerned for the future of his person outside of PHENOM."

"So...if I don't save him...he dies?" That was a very tall order. But what do you say when a prominent tech giant sits in your kitchen and tells you that you have to save someone or they die and your parents lose their job?

If you're Marinette, you know that choice is a no-brainer. Accept the mission, save the kid, keep her life as is.

"Yes. So you see why it's important that you succeed."

"Yeah. That's quite a lot to process."

He noticed her hesitance. "Your body would also be monitored by the same doctors while you were in PHENOM. We would not want to compromise your health."

Marinette looked to her parents. They had been sitting silently, watching the exchange unfold.

"Mom? Dad?"

Her mother shook her head and placed a hand on her father's shoulder. "We're sorry, sweetheart, but this is your choice. You're an adult." She could tell her father wanted to say more, but present company kept him from voicing his mind.

She gently bit her bottom lip, considering her options. "I accept."

"Tomorrow morning. 9 A.M. Agreste Industries headquarters. Do not be late." Gabriel stood from the table, his bodyguard close behind. They left through the front door without so much as a goodbye.

After the door clicked shut, Marinette turned to her parents.

"I've got to call Nino and Alya."

Sabine nodded. "Just...don't tell them more than is necessary."

"Thank you." With that, she ascended the stairs to her room.

Tom and Sabine looked at each other. Never, in their wildest imagination, did their work day end with their boss threatening their livelihood and their daughter.

An unspoken agreement went up between the pair. They would do everything in their power to assist Marinette without getting caught.

 _miraculousladybug:_ So, basically, I have to save his son or he dies.

 _ninothelioma:_ wow that's a lot

 _WiFiMaidEasy:_ Who's to say this isn't a plot by the Regularity?

 _ninothelioma:_ dont start with your government conspiracies again

 _WiFiMaidEasy:_ It's not a conspiracy! On the dark web, there's people who talk about their experiences with them.

 _miraculousladybug:_ You lost me at dark web.

 _WiFiMaidEasy:_ You're a hacker!

 _miraculousladybug_ : Ah-ah-ah, I am an ASSASSIN. Different thing.

 _WiFiMaidEasy:_ Puh-lease. You still use cheat codes and glitches because your dad is a game designer.

 _miraculousladybug:_ Don't discount Mom's work as a dialogue writer.

 _ninothelioma:_ bc where would we be without pivotal lines such as "I'm not a man. I'm a weapon in human form:

 _Miraculousladybug:_ Say what you will, but NPCs can offer important information.

 _ninothelioma:_ or lead you on impossible quests. i still havent ever found Mankrik's wife

 _miraculousladybug:_ Well, maybe, if you stopped trusting everyone on Barrens chat to give you an honest answer, you would've found her. It's not their fault that you're a noob.

 _ninothelioma:_ excuse me! i have more hours logged on PHENOM than you do!

 _WiFiMaidEasy:_ I don't need that many hours, because I'm actually good.

 _miraculousladybug_ : Stop arguing before you break up over something stupid. Again.

 _ninothelioma:_ real talk, maribug. biggest issue you're gonna have to face is hawkmoth

 _miraculousladybug:_ Who's that?

 _ninothelioma::_ "who's that"' she asks and she called me the noob!

 _miraculousladybug:_ Listen, I've been doing homework and the odd rogue job here and there to save for university. Sorry I haven't been as obsessed with PHENOM as the rest of the world.

 _WiFiMaidEasy:_ Hawkmoth's this total d-bag who's just been killing everyone he thinks is his competition. But, somehow, he hasn't been doing it himself.

 _nNinothelioma:_ yeah like he'll make someone else go on the quest, but he'll be controlling them and he gets the crit and the xp from it

 _miraculousladybug:_ Woah...that's messed up. That totally screws with the game!

 _WiFiMaidEasy:_ Yeah. It's pretty much the biggest cheat ever.

 _ninothelioma:_ nobody knows how he's done it

 _WiFiMaidEasy:_ That's why I- and at least three of my internet friends- think he's part of the Regularity! Think about it- he infiltrates PHENOM and then he can take it down from the inside and-

 _miraculousladybug:_ Guys, I've got to get to bed before I undertake the Most Mighty of Quests tomorrow.

 _WiFiMaidEasy:_ Alright, M. Take care and remember we'll be online if you need us.

 _miraculousladybug_ is offline.

 _WiFiMaidEasy_ is offline.

 _ninothelioma_ is offline.

"Are you ready, Miss Cheng?" came the ask from Mr. Agreste's stern assistant. Marinette thought her name might have been Nathalie? She wasn't sure. But she was irked that her name was said wrong.

"Dupain-Cheng. And I'm as ready as I can be. Let's go save this Adam-"

"Adrien."

That mistake earner her a cutting glare from the woman. And she felt a bit like a jerk. Here she was, getting upset about her name said wrong, and she can't even remember the name of the boy she's saving. Nice.

"That's what I said. Let's go save Adrien."


	3. Chapter 3

"Going outside is highly overrated."

Her boots made a quiet thud as they hit the ground, landing in the all-too-familiar park. The blade of grass bent forgivingly under her tread. Loping towards the nearest mailbox around the perimeter of the grassy area, Marinette felt the light breeze ruffle through her short hair.

The opening of the mailbox made a loud clink, and sure enough, sitting in her box was the promised 10,000 NOM-Coins. _Sweet!_ she thought. Along with the money was a letter on the last known whereabouts of Adrien Agreste in the PHENOM.

Accepting the currency, Marinette opened the letter with it.

 _Adrien was last seen towards the westernmost corner of The Forest of Runes. His in-game coordinates disappear at the town limits, in Steegrove. We have sent scouts, but no one can find him. It is up to you. Save Adrien, or PHENOM as the world knows it will be destroyed._

So much for that. It's such a completely low pressure situation and nothing could go wrong if she failed.

Or...so much could go wrong.

And, of course, he would be in the farthest place from the starting park in the Lost City.

Parametric Handsfree Entertainment Nanofabrication Online Multiplayer, or PHENOM as it was known, was split into about five large sections.

There was the Lost City, which functioned as the main hub for virtual life. Parks, malls, schools- they were all there.

Then there was the Naramuz Highlands, to the north and a bit west. It was mountainous, but great for completing quests because of the large amounts of exotic wildlife it supported.

To the east of the highlands was the Fellmoor Swamp. The swamp was mostly used for battles- typically for hourly capture the flag tournaments.

There was the Forest of Runes. It was a dangerous area that was not possible to be in unless you were a level 50 or higher. The whole place was a PvP zone, and it was a magical free-for-all brawl. Plus, the programmers placed a bunch of Easter eggs in the forest for people to find. It was highly coveted. But it was also a pain in the ass to get to level 50.

And there was the Bunker, which was basically a PHENOM version of an underground black market. Spanning under each of the four above-ground areas, it was a seedy traffic way that was not for the faint of heart.

Of course this kid would be in the only level-restricted area. As the son of the Agreste Industries giant, he would probably be well over level 50. Probably some kid with no life who spent all his time acting like a hot-shot in the virtual world. Marinette wasn't sure she had ever heard of him before his famous disappearing act.

She thanked her lucky stars she had dedicated the hours that she had into levelling, or trying to grind out to 50 would've taken forever. As it stood, she was a 53.

Placing the letter in her inventory to keep as a reminder for the upcoming journey, she set off.

Messages began pinging up in the chat bar.

WiFiMaidEasy: M...I'm not gonna say anything too revealing because THEY might be watching or listening, but be careful.

ninothelioma: are u by a mailbox? let me send u some weaponry

miraculousladybug: I'm fine, guys. Thanks

New mail received from: ninothelioma.

miraculousladybug: What did you send me?

ninothelioma: agatha

WiFiMaidEasy: HANG ON, you sent M Agatha? I'm your girlfriend and you've never let me borrow it!

ninothelioma: she needs it more sorry

miraculousladybug: The blade of mystery. Thanks, N.

WiFiMaidEasy: You gotta be careful, M. With something as high profile as this, the Regularity has to be in on it. They're probably tracking you right now. Reading this as I type. Hey, Regularity agent reading this!

miraculousladybug: If you don't like them, why would you say hi?

WiFiMaidEasy: I may hate them, but I am always friendly.

ninothelioma: *snorts*

Marinette laughed. The witty repartee was lessening the ball of tension in her stomach. Virtual or not, anxiety still sucked. Especially when the fate of someone rested in your hands, no matter how capable people thought you were.

She pulled up her map. She had been walking for some time now, and she was about out of city limits. Unfortunately, she still had quite a bit of a checklist of cities and lands to go through.

Her path would be as follows:

Across the River of Towers in the Caerphy Forest, through the Nymph Woods and Dragon's Vale- where she would have to pass through Gaburh, the Dragon's Lair- then north through the Desolation of Namzu. That would be her path around the outskirts of the Naramuz Highlands, because she didn't want to have to do all the mountain climbing.

But once she was able to pass through the Desolation of Namzu, she would arrive at the Forest of Runes. It was maybe a day or so of straight gameplay.

Alas, Marinette was human, so she'd need breaks for trivial things like food and sleep and the bathroom. All things her avatar didn't have to do. She had never been so jealous. The faster she got this mission completed, the faster she got paid and her livelihood wasn't being threatened anymore.

She noticed the absence of messages popping up in her feed once she closed her map. Where did Nino and Alya go? She went to open her chat bar, but it locked and a bright red message flashed across her screen.

COMMUNICATION NOT ALLOWED PAST LOST CITY.

Huh. That was weird. She wasn't ready to accept Alya's government conspiracy theory, but it was odd. Maybe it was disabled so she wouldn't be distracted? Either way, it was a crappy thing to do. She sighed. She truly was in this all alone.

Trudging forward, she began to get lost in her thoughts. She set her avatar on auto-walk so she didn't get distracted by her own daydreaming. Who would've thought that she would be the savior of anyone? Let alone the child of one of the most famous humans ever.

She wondered about this Adrien. Nobody bothered to tell her anything about him. Judging from his father, she guessed he would be cold and abrasive. Was he around her age? Older? Younger? They didn't even bother to tell her his gamer tag, for crying out loud! What was she supposed to do- approach every strange boy in the Forest of Runes and ask if they were Adrien? What if he played with a female avatar?

There were so many unknowns. She sighed. But no matter the stresses, she was in this. Besides, the PHENOM was better than the real world. Going outside is highly overrated.


	4. Chapter 4

"All the intervening layers slipped away, and I lost myself in the game within the game."

This sucked. This quest was stupid and she was already mentally done with Adrien Agreste.

She wondered if it was possible to hate someone without ever knowing them.

This kid didn't want to be found. There was a reason he was hiding in some far off city and the best programmers weren't able to find him.

She had to give credit where credit was due, though. To be able to hide in the game without anyone being able to find them? That was knowledge and skill. It was mildly impressive.

But still infuriating.

She had been in the game for what felt like an excessive amount of time. The PHENOM usually only allowed users five hours maximum in the game. The PHENOM VR helmet left people in a catatonic state until they were able to log off, and people usually didn't want to.

The software was designed to manually kick people out at the five hour limit. People could buy timer hacks from the black market to use on PHENOM, though they came with a risk. If you were ever found guilty of using the hacks, you would get banned for life from the VR world. Most people weren't willing to risk destroying their fantasy for thirty extra minutes.

Marinette was one of those people who cheated the system. With game developers for parents and friends obsessed with the underhanded dealings of the game, it was no wonder that she had cheats for days. Her mother, the renowned Sabine Dupain-Cheng, had even written a few secret dialogue bits to turn off all cheats and enhancements. Marinette's favorite phrase was, "There's just two ways this can end, and in both of them, you die!" It was from an older game she and her father had played when she was younger, so it held a special place in her heart.

Plus, it was funny. It made her sound tougher than she was, which was a bonus.

But it was kind of draining, if she was being honest. Even though her physical body was in a state of rest, her in-game persona was starting to get strained. She was almost at her destination- maybe ten more minutes of running through immaculately designed landscapes and she'd finally reach the site of Adrien's disappearance.

Slightly ahead in the distance was the entrance to the Forest of Runes. But, off to the side, there was a swirling, pulsing black portal. And because she was already acting like a white mom in a horror movie, she decided to go check it out, after saving her location so she could return if something happened. Stepping forward, her hand outstretched, she touched the portal and was immediately thrown into blackness.

If she were in her physical body, she would take some deep breaths to slow her heart rate. But those things didn't matter here. All that mattered is how fast and how well her brain could instruct her virtual body to operate.

Marinette stepped into the room and heard the doors shut behind her.

She glanced around.

It was white everywhere, with no signs of entrance or exit. A few seconds later, a message appeared in black inky cursive across the walls:

Lose yourself in the game within the game.

As the words begin to fade, she readied herself for whatever was coming next.

It happened faster than expected.

The floor dropped open. Marinette began to fall.

She unhooked her trusty magic yo-yo from her side and shot it towards the white expanse of the sky. She looked down to quickly assess her situation.

Holy cats.

Three dorsal fins circled in the water below her, less than three feet away.

Suddenly she felt like a worm on the end of a hook. She began to panic, trying to make sense of the competing voices yelling at each other inside her brain.

GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!

NO! YOU CAN DO THIS!

She pulled her yo-yo back into her palm as fast as she could, and proceeded to launch it at the sharks. Quickly looping her string around the animals and wrangling them together, she felt a sense of pride. This wouldn't be so bad. But it seemed as if Adrien Agreste had left quite a maze to get through to find him, and with her competitive streak, there was no was Marinette would lose. Not on her life. Or on any of her extra lives either.

Heh.

Marinette had been killed many times in virtual battle, but never virtually eaten, and she hoped she never would be. Even though the logical part of her brain knew she wouldn't feel any pain while it happened and that she would regenerate within seconds, she didn't think she could live with the image of her torso torn in half.

She twirled around on the top of the bound sharks in victory, waiting for what would happen next. Sure enough, the shark tank disappeared and the white room returned.

A door slides open in front of her and she exited the room into a maze. The maze is all white too, corridors upon corridors, mostly leading to dead ends. Marinette reached her right arm out and drug her fingers along the wall, always making right turns no matter what.

Within a few minutes, she discovered a button on the wall. She pushed it. Another door appeared and opened before her. As soon as she stepped inside, the door closed, and once again she was trapped in a white box with no visible signs of entry or exit. She wondered, illogically, if any of this could take a physical toll. If it could, actually, hurt her somehow.

 _I need to end this now_ , she thought, before she found herself swallowed whole and have a heart attack back in the real world. The walls slowly started shrinking in on her and she could feel her heart rate starting to beat in double-time.

 _It's just a game_ , she reminded herself. _I figure it's only a matter of seconds before my ribcage gets crushed, sending me back to the Lost City to start all over again._

That was so not going to happen.

She sat down, and braced her hands and feet against the walls pushing down on her. Her eyes flitted around for a moment until-

EUREKA!

She quickly took the boot off her left foot and wedged the high part underneath one of the closing walls, hoping that stopping one wall would stop them all. And, like magic, it worked.

"And the crowd goes wild," she said to no one, letting out a big sigh as the compressing walls finally disappeared.

She stood and began to follow the walls again, always turning right, until reaching another button.

A moment later, Marinette was standing on a long rickety rope bridge between two high granite cliffs. Several planks were missing from the bridge, threatening to drop her into the sea of boiling orange lava below. She was just gathering her bearings when the pterodactyl attacked.

The five dive-bombing dinos did their best to knock her into the lava gorge or spear her with their pointy beaks on their swooping attacks, but they were no match for this girl/weapon combo.

She and her yo-yo performed like a beautiful machine, a symphony of movement, a perfect, deadly blend of accuracy and precision. _It's like the yo-yo and I have morphed into one body,_ she thought.

She picked them off one by one, until the last one fell . . .

. . . onto the rope bridge.

Oops.

The bridge sagged under the weight of the pterodactyl, then snapped in two.

She grabbed for the ropes and went swinging down like Tarzan, skimming the boiling lava, and smashing into the granite wall.

Ouch is all she had time to think before her skull cracked against the granite.

She woke up in the Lost City. "Adrien Agreste, you asshole!" she yelled. "I know that isn't very nice, but I don't care. At this point I thoroughly despise Adrien Agreste and his creepy fright fest. And now I have to start over again. I just lost thirty valuable minutes of time, not to mention a piece of my sanity. No wonder some people end up mental."

Marinette was lucky she had saved her location outside of the Forest of Runes and was able to teleport.

It's one thing to create your own game, to know who your enemies will be before you go in. Like those Choose Your Own Adventure books for kids. Let's say you decide to battle a dragon. You still feel a thrill of fear once that dragon starts chasing you with his razor-sharp claws and fiery breath, but at least you chose him, and if you're any good, you also equipped yourself with some decent weaponry to fight him. It's another thing entirely to battle unknown enemies that another player chose. It's like someone telling you there's a monster under your bed, then forcing you to stick your head down there to look.

There aren't enough chill pills in the world to get over that kind of mind game.

But...

She was not giving up yet. Not now that she knew how to play.

She was on a mission now to haul Adrien Agreste's sorry butt back home so she could swear at him in person and make him grovel for mercy.

She went back towards the portal, armed herself with her yo-yo, and started over.

This time around she killed off the sharks and escaped the claustrophobia maze with speed and efficiency. She was nowhere near as anxious on this run because she knew what to expect. It was still pretty terrifying, of course, but she just kept repeating her mantra whenever the fear started to take over: It's just a game, it's just a game, it's just a game . . .

She took down the pterodactyls even faster this time, and when the last one slammed onto the bridge, she was ready for it. She threw her yo-yo towards the moorings at the top of the cliff and it wrapped securely, the force from her fall wrenching her arm painfully. She let out a yell and gritted her teeth against the lightning pain through her arm, but it was too late. Her fingers loosened and her yo-yo could not save her.

Down she went, straight into the boiling lava.

Marinette doesn't yell this time when she woke up in the Lost City. Instead, she allowed herself to daydream about all the things she would say to Adrien Agreste when she found him. They were very unpleasant things, things which should never ever be uttered aloud, lest you be struck dead by whichever God is currently on duty. It was a risk she was willing to take.

This time, she defeated the sharks before they knew she was there. She make sure to incapacitate the five wheeling pterodactyls at the three-o'clock or nine-o'clock positions, so they fell straight into the lava and stayed away from the bridge.

Finally, the lava gorge dissolved to white.

Victory at last. She stood still for a few minutes, allowing herself to have plenty of time to prep for the next obstacle. She was determined to win the next one the first time through, as a point of pride.

Also, I'll scream if I wake up in the Landing one more time, she thought.

Just before she pushed the next button to the next room, she swallowed down a pricey speed potion she acquired just for this purpose.

The whiteness turns into a golden haze, and it took her a moment to get her bearings. She was in a desert, melting hot, and the sun was shining brightly into her eyes. She spun around in a circle to mark the location of my foes. Maybe it would be easy. And then she spotted them.

Giant Scorpions? Not so easy.

Papa was at four o'clock, shiny and black and the biggest of them, his stinger raised to a height about twice her own five feet eight inches. Mama was at eight o'clock, copper-tinted and moving slowly, biding her sweet time. And Baby was positioned directly at twelve o'clock, an iridescent greenish blue like a dragonfly and the smallest of the three, but also the fastest and coming right at me.

"Okay, let's get this done," she said to herself. Marinette ran as fast as she could toward Baby, brandishing her yo-yo. She moved like a panther, legs pumping at least twice their normal speed, and she felt like she was about to go airborne. She'd never used a speed potion before—performance enhancements have always been way out of her price range—and it almost felt like cheating.

Baby saw her and raised his stinger even higher without losing speed. _I can't believe I'm playing a game of chicken with a Giant Scorpion,_ she thought, _but here we are, running at each other like freight trains about to collide._ "Wait for it . . . wait for it," she muttered as it got closer and closer, and then SWISH, down came his stinger, straight at her heart.

Marinette threw her yo-yo out and pulled tight, suspending the stinger in mid-air. Baby let out an even louder high-pitched screech when he realizes he's stuck. For a second she wondered if scorpions screech in real life, but then Baby lifted his tail with her arm and yo-yo still attached, and her mind snapped back to the task at hand. She pulled down on her yo-yo string as hard as she could and sliced Baby's tail clean off.

Baby let out one last screech before he dissolved in thin air and Marinette fell to the sand. There was no time to brush herself off. If Papa and Mama were dangerous before, they were in a murderous rage now. They came charging at her from opposite sides and it was all she could do to hold her ground between them.

They skittered around her, their black and copper stingers rained down in syncopated rhythm. Two Papa strikes for every Mama strike. As she tumbled and dodged, flipping in between their tails like a Chinese acrobat on speed, she took note of their movements. Papa's strikes were more forceful and rapid, but Mama had accuracy going for her.

Just as Papa raised his tail to strike again, she rolled between Mama's coppery legs. CRUNCH. Papa's stinger plunged itself into Mama's back. Mama screeched and her body went into defensive auto-pilot. Marinette heard another CRUNCH as Mama's stinger plunged into Papa.

Papa didn't even complain, he just took it like a boss and dissolved into the sand, locked in the fatal embrace of his wife.

Whew.

She sat down, shading herself until the desert turned back into the white room. She was exultant for a minute before a hideous realization descended on her like a school of poison jellyfish. The known portions of the maze were now complete. She didn't know what to expect or what kind of monsters to watch for. It was all guesswork. And if she failed, it was back to the beginning. All of it—all over again.

It was enough to make a weaker person, a person who in no way resembled her, cry.

She followed the white wall, which had become like her own yellow brick road, without a comforting trio of friends or trusty dog to help her out.

She made her way through twists and turns in the white wall until she finally reached a red button.

She pushed the button and stepped into the room, yo-yo cocked and ready.

A face appeared on the white wall in front of her. It was a pretty woman's face, pleasant and smiling

"Checkpoint complete," she said in a soothing, robotic voice. "Checkpoint complete."

Praise the Lord and pass the life hearts! Adrien Agreste actually included save points in his horrid little game. She would never have to face those stinking sharks again, let alone all the other creatures. She was so happy she could cry. Marinette smiled back at the nice checkpoint lady. Maybe she'll take her to Adrien.

Only now her face didn't look as pleasant as it did a second ago. Her eyes were turning red and her hair was turning white. Her teeth began to . . . sharpen? . . . transforming her pleasant smile into a creepy, evil grin, as if she was now selling one-way bus tickets on the highway to hell.

Marinette instinctively raised her yo-yo, though the face was no more than a projection.

The lights went out. Marinette was surrounded in the pitch darkness.

Panic froze her to the spot until something in her brain kicked into gear.

"He's feeding on phobias, and fear of the dark is a huge one," she said out loud to keep herself company. "Remember how you used to turn on not one but three night-lights in your bedroom?"

Sometimes she still slept with three night-lights. After today she was probably going to need four.

"It's just a game, it's just a game," she repeated to herself. Marinette had a moment of realization. In her game inventory, she had a pair of night-vision goggles. Perfect for use in creepy mini-games with demented hags made by a coding master teen/psychopath.

She equipped the goggles and closed her character viewing screen.

The hag was directly in front of her, the demonic face inches from hers. An icy coldness seeped from her body like a thick fog. Marinette felt like she had just stepped into a deep freeze.

"RUN!" she screamed, her hideous voice stabbing at Marinette's ears like a dagger.

She doesn't need to tell her twice. She took off.

The door to the room was open and she ran back into the maze, which was now steeped in darkness. The night-vision goggles turned everything ghoulish green. She ran wildly, terrified of what she might find ahead of her, but even more horrified by what was behind her. She risked a quick peek back and wished she hadn't. The woman was flying behind her like a ghostly white witch, her teeth bared in that horrible grin. Her long bony arms stretched out before her, and her hands, which looked more like sharp talons, tried to grab on to any part of Marinette that she could reach. She started to cackle then, louder and louder until the cackle turned into a high-pitched shriek that made her head feel like it might explode.

She ran left and right and this way and that, completely lost, completely out of her wits. She couldn't think straight, couldn't do anything but try to outrun her outstretched claws, her hideous shrieking. Marinette make another left and hit a dead end.

She felt the hag's icy hands scrape across her back. Her talons cut through cloth and bone and a searing cold permeated Marinette's chest, freezing and burning all at once.

She's ripping my heart out, her mind screamed as she slipped into unconsciousness.

Yep. Dead end.

Literally.

When she woke up, she was back in the white room with the robotic lady's floating head smiling at her from the wall. Damn. No rest for the wicked. She positioned her goggles, aimed her yo-yo straight ahead, and waited for the lights to go out.

A second later, all was dark. Leering banshee straight ahead.

She aimed her yo-yo right at her horrible mouth. THWACK!

It went right through her.

"RUN!" she screamed.

Oh God.

She ran. She couldn't bear the thought of those icy hands reaching into her body again. She shouldn't be able to feel them. Why can she feel them? She wasn't sure she even cared at this point. She tried to keep her hand along the right wall, always going right, but the inky green darkness confused her, and the night-vision goggles messed with her peripheral vision.

Think, think, think!

She whirled around and tried the yo-yo again. It was like shooting a water gun at a piranha. Totally ineffective.

She kept running, but was lost again now that she took her hand off the right wall to shoot her yo-yo.

Damn damn damn.

She didn't even notice the dead end this time until she ran smack into it.

She felt a frosty stab of pain enter between her shoulder blades, like she had just been impaled by an icicle.

The banshee stole her heart again.

She did the same thing twelve times in all, with slight variations. Each time, she tried another tactic, but she might as well have been battling whipped cream or clouds, only not so fluffy and pleasing.

Twelve times the lights went out, twelve times her ghoulish face appeared inches from Marinette's panicked face, twelve times she tried to kill her with the yo-yo, twelve times she didn't die, twelve times she screamed "RUN!", twelve times Marinette ran like her pants were on fire, twelve times she got lost, twelve times she felt her arctic claw reach inside her rib cage and rip her heart out.

Twelve flipping times she wanted to give up and yell out and give up and return to the real world without Adrien in tow. But she was not a quitter. She remembered when she was little, maybe eight years old, and was playing a game on Dad's old gaming console. It took her twenty-eight attempts to beat the final boss at the end. She remembered begging her dad to fight the battle for her, but all he said was, "Keep at it. Each time you try, you sweeten the victory." And it was true. That twenty-ninth attempt—that successful attempt—was so incredibly delicious that she had jumped on her bed for ten minutes afterward out of pure happiness.

As she prepared for her lucky thirteenth try, she tapped into her inventory once again and tried desperately to think of some trick, some new thing, something "out of the box" to defeat the hag, but once again she didn't have time to think. The lights went out and the ghoulfriend was in her face again screaming "RUN!"

She hadn't even armed herself this time. She accessed her inventory and grabbed the first weapon she could get looked down to find Nino's trusty Agatha- the sword he named after his grandmother-in her hands. Oh for God's sake. Agatha was nothing more than a bent, rusty butter knife.

It was so absurd that she started laughing. She looked right into the banshee's red eyes and only flinched slightly. She had looked into her hideous face so many times now she was getting used to it. Might as well skip to the chase at this point, or skip the chase altogether, as the case happened to be. "Go ahead," she said bravely, sticking out her chest. "Just rip it right out."

They both stood there for a moment—technically, the banshee floated—and engaged in an intense staring contest. She was really good at that game, honed by hours of matches with Nino during eighth-grade study hall. Marinette blew a puff of air into her eyes, and her icy eyelids fluttered. "Made you blink," she sang, mainly to amuse herself while she waited for the heart snatchery that wass to come.

Only it didn't.

The banshee backed away from her and the lights went back on. She removed her night-vision goggles and saw the white wall swallow her up until only her face is showing . . . her horrible, witchy face, which slowly transformed back into my favorite, smiling, not-evil lady.

"CHECKPOINT COMPLETE," said the soothing robotic voice. "CHECKPOINT COMPLETE."

She was almost too stunned to move.

She didn't know what happened back there, but she was pretty sure she could now add Blinking Contest Goddess to her college applications.

A door in the white wall slid open and she saw what looked like a room full of PHENOM personas on the other side.

"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered, stepping tentatively across the threshold and looking around in wonder.

Yep. She was in a bar.

Not just any bar either, but a really swank one populated by happy, beautiful people, who sat at a long, glossy counter and raised shiny glasses at each other. They all looked fabulous in a sort of half-historical, half-modern way, like she was somewhere frozen in time. Some of the people are speaking English and others were speaking French.

She glanced around the mahogany interior, yo-yo at the ready. She wasn't sure if this was a safe place or if she was still stuck in Adrien's sadistic mini-game, but she thought it best to be cautious just in case. Near what she presumed was the entrance, she saw a sign denoting the name of the bar as Agreste Tavern. This had to be the right place if he had written his last name into the bar's code.

Marinette sidled up to the bar, and flashed the bartender a wide smile she didn't quite feel. People were always more willing to dole out information if you started with a smile. "Excuse me, sir. I was wondering if you knew an Adrien Agreste?"

"Oui, mademoiselle. Monsieur Adrien is the owner, I would hope I know him," he replied with a wink. Perfect.

"Is he here tonight?" she asked as nonchalantly as possible, leaning back against the bar and eyeing anyone in the crowd who looked like they might be an Adrien.

"No, mademoiselle. Not tonight. But you could always try again tomorrow? Monsieur Adrien loves pretty things, I'm sure he would be quite taken with you." Marinette blushed a bit at that, not sure how to respond. She was disappointed that Adrien wasn't there, but she also knew he was probably close by if he was a regular.

"That's all I needed to know. Merci!" and she marched right out the front door.

She was at the corner of an intersection, where streetlights and headlights and neon signs lit up the tall, balconied buildings lining the streets. The cars were big and wide and old-timey, with giant chrome fenders and hood ornaments, and painted with pretty pastel colors. People strolled the streets, smiling and laughing, like they were all off to a party and not just strings of code. The air was warm, but a cool breeze blew, smelling of the sea. Marinette was astounded. She could smell things in this world, feel and taste things. She was also confused. She had no idea where to go, or how this world had been mapped. Also, given the dozens of people walking around, Adrien could easily hide himself among them.

She started following a group of young people up the street. The young men were dressed in lightweight suits and ties, while the girls wore fancy flapper-style dresses that cling to their curves. Maybe they'll lead her to Adrien. If there's one thing she learned about pulling teenage boys out of PHENOM, it was this: when in doubt, follow the hot girls.

The group turned down a few more streets and Marinette could hear music throbbing from several clubs—jazz and pianos all at once. She wondered if one of these clubs might be where Adrien was hiding.

"Don't turn around," said a gruff voice from behind her as she felt cold metal on the back of her neck. "Keep walking and keep quiet."

"Oh please," she muttered under her breath. She was almost enjoying this custom world, but now she was being mugged by some virtual thug. Oh well, it was better than a shark tank, and maybe this would lead her to Adrien. He probably made himself a mob boss or something.

"Where are we going?" she asked, as the thug pushed her down a narrow alley. "And do they serve daiquiris there?" she joked, more for her own amusement than his. Most NPCs in the PHENOM had a limited capacity to understand sarcasm.

"In there," the voice said, directing her toward a door at the end of the alley. She opened the door and the thug pushed her through a dark hallway and into another room. It appeared to be a dressing room, and by the looks of the clothing strewn about, the woman who dressed there wore a lot of sequins, feathers, and . . . not much else.

"This must be your mother's room," she remarked, wondering how the PHENOM thug would reply.

"My mother's dead, but she preferred cottons while she was alive."

She twirled around then, not caring about the gun on her neck. PHENOM NPCs don't talk like that. She recognized the steely glint in his eyes from his father, and immediately fury overwhelmed her.

"Adrien Agreste, you little pantywaist," she said, and charged him, despite the gun aimed directly at her head.

Surprise was on her side, fortunately, because Adrien Agreste wasn't quite the pantywaist she just called him. She was tall, but he still had several inches of height on her, and he seemed pretty athletic. And, oh yeah, super hot.

She had speed, though, and she knew where to land a kick.

She kicked hard.

The blow made him drop the gun, which Marinette snatched up and aimed at his hea.

"Your twisted game is over now," she said, as he slumped back against the wall and contemplated her. "I suggest you return home out of the PHENOM this minute before I shoot you back home."

"Who are you?" he asks in a demanding tone, his face unreadable.

"Your father hired me to get you to come home. So let's go."

"Why would my father hire a teenage girl? You're tiny and honestly not that threatening," he said condescendingly.

It took all of her self-control not to give Adrien Agreste another swift kick. She kept steady, but couldn't stop her mouth from tearing into him. "Yes, he did, in fact, hire me, a girl. Nobody else could get through your creepy maze, you freak show, and believe me, you're making me sorry I ever tried. Next time you run away, maybe you should think about all the people you're hurting first. Like your dad's assistant. She's been sitting by your bedside night and day, you know, missing you, not to mention your dad and all the guilt he feels from your suicide note, or whatever it was."

As she yelled, Adrien's face turned from anger to confusion. "They think I ran away?"

"Well, didn't you?"


	5. Chapter 5

"You'd be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoever."

Adrien didn't answer her question. Instead he walked toward her, ignoring the gun and grabbing her shoulders. "Take me back right now. Show me how to go home." His face was scary intense, and he was making Marinette nervous.

"Wait—what for?"

He let out a frustrated grunt. "Show me how you got in."

"I told you, I went through your damn maze."

"I don't know what you're talking about. A maze? Where? How does it work? Can we go back through it?" he asked, his hands still gripping her shoulders, his face inches from hers.

The maze . . .

Marinette remembered the flame-eyed witch ripping through her skin—the burn of her icy-cold fingers. If she had to feel that one more time . . .

She pulled away from him, shaking her head vehemently. "No way. I am not going through that again. Look, just reverse whatever you used to get here in the first place."

"Don't you think I've tried that?" he asked as his green eyes flashed with anger. "I'm trapped here. I've been trying to escape for days. Somebody's keeping me imprisoned here and I don't know why. Now show me the maze. Please. I've tried everything else I can think of."

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. So Adrien wanted to go home?

The story of the wayward billionaire's son just got a little more interesting, but she decided to wait and ask for details once they got back home. Right now they were on a bit of a tight schedule.

"What if I just shoot you?" she asked, waving the gun at him. "Maybe that will reset you back at the Lost City."

Adrien shook his head impatiently and tapped his temple with his forefinger like it was the barrel of a gun. "Tried it. Doesn't work. I just blank out for a minute, then wake up in exactly the same place I started. With a wicked headache."

Marinette had never heard of anyone committing suicide in the PHENOM before. And if the ordeal of the white witch was any indication, Adrien's actions caused him a not-inconsiderable amount of pain.

What he was saying began to seep through her thick skull and into her cortex.

"You're really . . . you're trapped here?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you, yes!"

Her mind began to race. Everything was different now.

"There must be another way out, something you haven't thought of," she said, dropping the useless gun and looking through her inventory. "Let me think."

"I'm telling you, there's no other way." He stared at me and began to speak very slowly, as if she was a small child. "Someone has trapped me here. I have been trying to escape for days. Show. Me. The. Maze."

She blew out her breath. "Fine, I'll show it to you, but we'll never make it through. I blew nearly all my ammo getting here, and I don't suppose you've got an unlimited supply either if you've been shooting yourself in the head."

Adrien glared at her. "I don't usually bring weapons to PHENOM. The gun's all I have, plus a few rounds of ammo."

Marinette almost laughed. "Yeah, well I'm afraid that sharks and giant scorpions require a little more than a Colt .45."

Adrien tilted his head in disbelief. "Sharks. And scorpions?"

"Oh, that's not the half of it. So cool your jets for a minute and let me think, okay?"

Adrien paced for a few seconds in frustration, then leaned against the wall and slid down to a sitting position. He rubbed a hand over his face. "So how were you planning to return yourself, if not by the maze?"

"Your father gave me a code to return. I'm assuming you've got your own return code, but there's a bit of a snag with that. If you've tampered with it at all- which I suspect you have if you're really stuck like you say- you won't be able to return."

Adrien lifted his head. "I'm not the one who tampered with it."

"Either way," she said. "It won't work. It's not coded to you now."

"Why don't they just shut down the game for a few minutes?" asked Adrien. "If everyone is as worried about me as you say, why doesn't my father just turn off the PHENOM?"

She snorted. "I see your father has kept his dirty little secret from you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Apparently there's a pesky side effect." She pushed some bright, feathery boas off a wooden table and hiked herself onto the surface, sitting cross-legged. "Anybody playing the PHENOM using nonregulation frequencies could suffer brain damage if the game is shut down."

Adrien grimaced, though he did not look very surprised. "I wondered about that," he said. "The brain's incredibly complex . . . my father's people have done a lot of research but our neural paths are like an infinite universe."

"Yeah, well, easy to say now, Einstein. Maybe your father and his people should have let players know about the dangers involved instead of treating us like guinea pigs." She thought of Nino and Alya, and wished they were here to help her figure this out.

"You don't know what you're talking about. My father's brain stem research has the potential to change the world," Adrien said. "True innovation always involves a certain amount of risk."

She got mad all over again. "Look, hotshot, you have no idea what I just went through. I've always loved the PHENOM, as a game . . . but in one single day I've made two important discoveries. First, your father's 'innovation' has the potential to put people—people like us—in a coma. And second, it can be used to torture people. That maze would send most people into lifelong therapy."

Adrien didn't look convinced. "People get 'killed' in games all the time. That's one of the reasons they play, isn't it? For the thrill, the adrenaline rush. How is that maze any different?"

"Because I didn't get to choose any of it. Half the time I didn't know what was coming. Don't you understand? It's like your worst nightmare, only a billion times worse because it feels so real."

"Still, it can't be that scary if you know it's a game," Adrien said with a shrug. Marinette wanted to punch his stupid, beautiful face.

"Fine, let's go then," she said, hopping off the table.

Adrien got to his feet. "Where to?"

"You want to go to the maze, I'll take you there. Be my guest," she said. Before meeting Adrien she wouldn't have wished the maze on her worst enemy, but now she couldn't wait for him to give it a go. Adrien Agreste was just as arrogant as his father. Let him be the shark bait and see how he feels.

He followed her to the alley, a small grin on his face like he had just won the battle. He had no idea. She looked around to get her bearings once they reached the intersection. The street was still busy and there were glowing neon signs advertising beer and cigarettes.

"We need to get to the Agreste bar," she said.

Adrien raised his eyebrows, then pointed left. "This way," he said, and they began to make their way down the busy street.

As she followed Adrien, Marinette took a good look around at the world he created. She had to admit, it was the best custom PHENOM she had ever been in, certainly much more extravagant and vast than anything she ever made. The buildings they passed were all meticulously detailed, with their shadowy colonnades, their weathered paint, the scrolled ironwork of outdoor hanging lamps, gates and balconies. She glanced through one of the ground-floor gates and saw a garden courtyard tucked between two buildings, where a couple sat and held hands among the white flower bushes. A breeze floated across her cheeks and she smelled a salty-sweet combination of ocean and flowers.

"That's amazing," she said, stopping to breathe in the delicious scent.

"Gardenias and Sea Breeze," Adrien said, his tone a little friendlier now. "The aroma modules are my favorite things to experiment with lately. I installed a bakery last week just so I could try out Buttery Croissants and Cinnamon Apple Pie."

"Can you taste them as well?" she asked.

Adrien nodded. "It's not as good as eating the real thing . . . the programmers are still playing around with texture, but it's a start."

Her previous anger has dissipated somewhat during their stroll, and she was almost tempted to ask if they could hit the bakery before they went back home. But she remembered her mission and pulled herself together. Her job was to get this guy home, not stop for pie.

"Look," she began, "I don't know how the maze works in reverse, whether you'll start with the banshee or the sharks, but regardless, you're going to need a rappelling gun. You can borrow mine, assuming you don't have one."

She continued talking, telling him about each room of the maze and how to defeat the enemies within. The odds of him making it all the way through were a long shot, and she was guessing he would give up sooner rather than later once he saw what he was up against. But if he was that determined to try, she might as well let him give it a go. In the meantime, she could stay behind and try to think of another way out. "For the pterodactyls, you're going to need a—"

Adrien took her by the arm and stopped her in her tracks. They had reached a busy intersection and as the pair waited for the lights to change, he turned and smiled at her. She was still mad at him, but it was the first time she had seen him smile—really smile—and she couldn't help it. Her stomach did a little flip-flop. Adrien Agreste was . . . well, he was not hard on the eyes. Damn it.

"I still don't know your name," he said softly.

"Gamer tag Miraculous Ladybug, but my real name's Marinette," she said. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

"Thank you, Marinette, for coming to my rescue." His green eyes seemed to sparkle at her and she felt her cheeks start to warm. She quickly looked away from him, even though she knew the blush she felt inside wouldn't show on her avatar. At least she didn't think it would.

The light changed and they walked across the intersection, his hand still wrapped around her arm. "I'll wait for you at the bar," she said, trying to compose herself and steer the conversation back to practical matters. "I'm guessing that's where the maze will spit you out each time you die."

Adrien shivered a bit at this, but when Marinette looked over at him, he grinned. "Marinette. Oh ye of little faith."

"Hey, nobody will be more pleased than me if you make it through in one try. The faster you get home, the faster I collect my paycheck."

"How will you know I've made it back?" he asked.

She had already thought of that. "Tell your dad to activate my emergency code remotely. That should work."

"And if it doesn't?"

She shrugged. "Then I'll activate it myself after a few daiquiris."

Adrien laughed. "Sounds like a plan."

They reached the Agreste and Adrien opened the door for her. She was beginning to enjoy his gentlemanly manners. There was a familiar-looking man at the end of the bar, but he was completely engrossed by a gorgeous blonde so Marinette couldn't make out his face. Adrien saw her looking and grinned.

"So why'd you make this bar?" she asked, waving her hand in a sweeping gesture. "And why does the bartender look like you, if you were a really old man?"

"When we get back to the real world, I'll buy you a milk shake and tell you all about it," he said.

"We'll see about that." she said. She tried to keep her face neutral, but a smile popped through anyway.

They took a minute to trade inventory items, then she led him to the back of the bar.

"This is it," she said, as they reach the bathroom door. "Are you ready?"

Adrien glanced at the sign and pretended to gasp. "The ladies' room? You're right, this is scary."

"You have no idea," Marinette said, actually feeling sorry for what he was about to experience.

"Good lu—" she began, but before she could finish, he gave her a roguish wink and barreled through the bathroom door.


	6. Chapter 6

She couldn't help her curiosity. Not even ten seconds had passed, but Marinette walked through the door.

She was expecting a room of white. Instead she saw a ladies' restroom with Adrien standing in the middle of it, legs apart, fists clenched in fists. Adrien saw her in the doorway.

"How long does it take?" he asked, his eyes scanning the bathroom. "Do I have to press a button or something? Flush a toilet?"

"No," she said. "No, no, no, no, no." She looked around in disbelief. She wasn't sure whether to be horrified or relieved. "It's gone."

"What?" Adrien dropped his 'ready' stance and headed for the door. "Maybe you got it mixed up."

"I don't think so," she said testily, following him out. He opened the neighboring door that said Men and stuck his head in.

"No sharks in there either?" she asked when he turned around.

"Not unless they're in the sink." He let out a long breath and ran a hand through his hair. "No sharks. Now what?"

"There must be another way to get you back. Try your return code again."

"You know it doesn't work."

"Try it anyway."

He rolled his eyes, but recited the code loudly into the PHENOM. Nothing happened.

"Satisfied?" he asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Wait a minute. How do you normally get to the Lost City? Not through the restroom, I presume."

Adrien shook his head and let out a frustrated sigh. "You're not listening, are you? They've blocked all exits, Marinette. There's no way out."

"There must be," she said. "Take me to your Lost City portal."

"Fine," Adrien said. "Come on."

They went back into the streets of Paris and walked for about five minutes before turning down what looked like an older residential avenue. The two- and three-story buildings were all pressed together along the street, their balconies draped with flowers, the streetlights showing off their rainbow of colors. It was pretty there, even in the dark.

"Where are we?" she asked, as Adrien led her inside one of the homes.

He didn't answer. She followed him through the front room of the dark house and up a wide staircase with a sleek wooden handrail. As they ascended the stairs, he lit the electric sconces hung along the staircase wall. The inside of the house was as pretty as the outside. The walls of the stairwell were painted a pale blue and hung with dozens of framed portraits and landscapes. In the front room below there were small potted trees and urns of cut flowers sprinkled among the furniture, filling the house with color and more sweet smells. Adrien had been busy with the aroma modules here, too.

They walked up two flights of steps until they got to the third floor, then entered the darkened room at the front of the house, the one facing the street. The balconied floor-to-ceiling windows stood open, letting in a cool breeze and the sounds of the city below. Adrien flicked on an overhead chandelier.

They were in a bedroom, obviously, given the white-painted four poster bed that dominated the room. The rest of the furniture matched the bed—a dressing table, nightstand, wardrobe—all in white with dainty hand-painted pink floral designs decorating their corners. The pale yellow coverlet on the bed matched the walls, and little embroidered pillows sat in a tidy row across the top of the bed. A small white cast-iron bistro table and chair sat on the balcony, which was laced with some kind of deep purple flowers.

"So is the portal somewhere nearby or are we just resting?" Marinette asked, inspecting the photos and postcards tucked inside the frame of the dressing table's big oval mirror. The photos looked like old movie star glamour shots, good-looking people from decades ago, their scrawled signatures across the bottom. The illustrated postcards said things like "Bonjour from France!" and featured smiling couples. A hand mirror, a brush, and several little pots of makeup sat on the dressing table along with a few of those old glass perfume bottles with the attached spritzers.

In the mirror she could see Adrien standing rather awkwardly, his hands shoved in the front pockets of his jeans, a somewhat sheepish look on his face. That's when it dawned on her. This must be his girlfriend's room . . . his virtual girlfriend's room. Usually she would find this funny, but for some reason, she felt irritated. Really, really irritated.

"So . . . the portal?" she said, unable to keep the peevishness from her voice.

Adrien cleared his throat. "It's through there," he said quietly, pointing his thumb toward the wardrobe.

"You're kidding me, right?"

Adrien shakes his head.

She laughed, enjoying the embarrassed smile that played across his lips.

"Your portal is through the wardrobe. You've created your own little Narnia," she said, walking toward the large cupboard. "Does it come with a talking lion, too?" She pulled open the wardrobe doors with both hands.

There was nothing there. No portal, no Lost City, no fur coats leading to a snowy forest. Inside the wardrobe there was just a pulsing, roiling cavernous void. Yet it seemed to want to reach out. It seemed . . . alive.

She had never seen anything like it before. She didn't even believe it existed.

Marinette glanced at Adrien, but he didn't need to said anything. Didn't bother to explain. They both know exactly what she was staring into.

The Black.

There was nothing to be afraid of. All those stories Alya told about the Black were just that. Stories.

She thought about opening the doors again. Just to prove it was no big deal, but her pulse hammered in her neck. Frustration bubbled up inside her, a sudden surge of anger, and she tried to push it back down.

"What?" Adrien asked.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Marinette asked.

"I told you. They took away the portal. There's no way out."

"And by they, you mean . . . ?" she asked, shaking the wardrobe. Maybe it was just a glitch, some kind of malfunction. Maybe if she disrupted the code, the portal would snap back into place.

"I don't know, but someone's behind this, someone is deliberately trying to keep me from going home," he said, running a hand through his hair again. "Wait, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Marinette pulled the heavy wardrobe away from the wall to examine the back of it. Nothing there. She pounded on the wall where the wardrobe was, then gave it a good strong kick.

"Stop that," Adrien said, pulling on her arm. "You're ruining it."

The pale blue wall now had a hole in it the size of her foot. She peered through, but there was nothing but Black on the other side. She jerked away from it, and swore again.

"Come on, we're leaving," Adrien said, pulling on her arm. She could tell he was upset that she was messing with his girlfriend's prissy little room. "Your mind is on overload right now; you don't know what you're doing."

His words made her madder than ever. She yanked her arm back. "I'm not done yet," she said. She stood behind the wardrobe and leaned into it.

"Stop!" Adrien yelled, but it was too late. The wardrobe teetered for a moment, then crashed into the four-poster bed. Both pieces of furniture collapsed and splintered.

"Pretty shoddy workmanship," she quipped to Adrien as she kicked through the rubble.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Adrien asked, his eyes filled with anger, his voice rising.

"I'm trying to get us out of here, you spoiled brat," she said, irritated by his bossiness. She was still the one in charge. She was the person his father hired to find a way out of here, and she was determined to do so.

"Don't worry," she continued, "I'm sure your virtual girlfriend won't mind a little redecorating." With that, she picked up the cast-iron chair from the balcony and started swinging it into the walls. Smashing things felt good, like she was somehow getting back at the PHENOM for what it put her through. She let loose with the chair and ripped the entire room to shreds. For a final touch, she threw the chair straight at the dressing table. It shattered the vanity mirror, and the photos and postcards disappeared under a mound of broken glass.

Adrien had been yelling at her to stop this whole time, but she ignored him. It was just a stupid room, nothing he couldn't rebuild once they got out.

Adrien was standing in the doorway, his fists clenched, his eyes blazing. "This is MY world, not yours. You have no right to destroy my creation."

"I'll do whatever I want," she said, the words shooting from her mouth like darts. "Your daddy's my boss, not you, remember?"

He looked furious, but she didn't care. It was like another Marinette had taken over her body, and she was okay with that. The real Marinette couldn't handle any more.

"Just leave," he said, his voice low and growly. "The only way you can help me is to go back and explain what's happened to my father."

Marinette examined another hole in the wall. Black. They're all filled with it. It undulates, shifts. Its darkness is total and complete.

"All you're doing now is making it worse," Adrien said. "Go home, Marinette."

She kicked another hole in the wall. "You know what? Fine," she said, blinking as she pulled up her inventory where her escape code was located."I'll go back home and draw a map for your daddy and his minions so they can come and find you. And then you can bitch to them about their rescue methods."

His face flashed something else now, something more sad than angry, and he opened his mouth as if to said something.

And then there was a sound. Or rather, a change in the sound. A dampening of it, like ears popping on an airplane.

The wall behind Marinette began to fuzz and break into fractals, like static on a TV. The surface bent crazily—the image of it stretching, twisting. The Black pulsed out of the holes she made. It swallowed the wall in great, large sections.

It was mesmerizing. They could do nothing but stand and stare at the wall as this presence—this thing—devoured it.

"Go," Adrien said.

She blinked at him. The Black moved onto the floor, oozing, turning the surface they were standing on into . . . nothing.

"GO!" he barked. He grabbed her shoulder and steers me toward the door. Outside the room, he closed the door behind them, and locked it tight with a key from his pocket.

"Wh-what?" she sputtered out. "How? Are we—?"

Adrien pressed his lips together. "I think it will stay contained inside the room," he told her. "It never did . . . that before."

They stared at the wood frame. It held fast—stable, solid.

Adrien turned to her. "I think . . . Marinette, I think you should go."

She felt like she could barely think, much less save anybody. "Look, maybe the programmers can find a way to create a new portal for you, once I explain the problem."

He tried to smile at her, though he looked anything but happy. "Please tell my grandmother that I miss her and I'll be home as soon as I can."

She felt a twinge of guilt thinking of Adrien's family and friends. How disappointed they would be when she returned empty-handed. But it couldn't be helped. Adrien was right. There was no easy way out of there and she had done her best.

She found Adrien. Now someone else needed to get him the hell out of there.

She nodded a quick good-bye, then recited her exit code into the PHENOM, waiting for the familiar beeping sound to take her back to reality.

She waited a little longer. No beeps. She was still in the hallway of Adrien's imagined house, and Adrien was starting to look worried.

Marinette blinked and looked up the code again. Maybe she mixed it up the numbers. She recited them again, this time louder.

Nothing. Across from her she saw Adrien's shoulders fall, his head drop. He raised his hands and massaged his forehead with his fingertips.

She ran down the stairs and out onto the cobbled street, yelling the numbers into the night sky.

Beside her a car honked.

A small group of people hailed a cab.

The code. It didn't work.

She was trapped there . . . with Adrien.

Her head was pounding, like a cymbal-banging monkey was going to town inside her brain. She considered knocking herself out with her yo-yo—that ought to shut it up—but something about that plan seemed wrong. She was too tired to figure out what though.

Why couldn't she think? She leaned against the house's exterior wall, then closed her eyes and slid down it into a heap.

The monkey doesn't stop. BANG BANG BANG BANG. She tucked her head down and put her hands over her ears, which was useless, but she couldn't seem to do anything else.

After a few moments she registered a hand on her knee and a soft voice said, "Hey there."

The monkey did its best to drown out the voice. BANG BANG BANG.

"Marinette, can you hear me?" the voice said, louder this time.

She blinked and tried to pull herself together. She nodded, and then winced. Bad idea. Moving her head made her dizzy.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Adrien said. He gently helped her to her feet. "You need to rest."

He took her hand like she was a five-year-old and led her around the back of the house, where a motorcycle was parked in the alley. He climbed on, then told her to get on the back and hold on. As they rode through the city, in and out of cars, they didn't talk—Marinette couldn't talk—and she was glad Adrien didn't asked any questions. She had no answers. She could barely remember her own name. She rested her head on his back and let him drive. The monkey cymbals were not as loud.

They finally reached a huge, stately hotel. The sign on the door reads Le Grand Paris Hôtel. Adrien left the motorcycle with a uniformed valet, and they walked through a lush lobby, where more beautiful people stood about talking and laughing and clinking little ice cubes in their drink glasses.

Adrien squeezed her hand. "Don't worry, we're almost there." He led her to an elevator, where another hotel attendant said, "Good evening, Mr. Agreste," and pressed a button. The elevator went to the top of the hotel and let them out into a luxurious hallway. A small voice in her head was trying to tell her something—warning her—something about strange boys and hotel rooms being a bad idea, but her hand, the one that was holding Adrien's, ignored that voice, and it soon went way.

They went through a service door, up a flight of stairs, and Adrien opened a door into the night sky. They were on the roof of the hotel. He led Marinette to a small garden and pushed her gently into a wicker recliner. "Wait here," he said.

In the distance, she could make out a river. The sound was restful, hypnotic, and soon the cymbals in her head went away entirely. A handful of stars twinkled above her, like fairies. She felt as if she could fall asleep, which was ridiculous. In the PHENOM, avatars don't sleep.

"Here you go," whispered Adrien. His arms were full of linens and pillows. He tucked a pillow under her head and covered her with a silky lightweight blanket. As her eyelids fluttered down for the last time, Marinette saw him settle into the recliner next to hers. He was staring up at the stars.

When she next opened her eyes, there was a beautiful pink-and-orange haze surrounding her. She blinked once, then burrowed her head back into the pillow and reached for her stuffed cat, who liked to sleep inside the nest of her curled body each night. Only he was not there. She registered that as strange, but was not ready to fully wake up yet to investigate further. The pillow was so soft, the sound of the river so soothing, the birds cooing . . .

River...birds? Something was wrong with that. Her brain was trying to pull itself out of slumber, but it was as if it was fighting itself. Half of it was saying "Birds. . . mmm." The other half was saying "Birds. . . wha?"

The "wha" side won.

She opened her eyes. A gorgeous boy sat across from her, watching her. He smiled. "Go ahead and take a minute," he said.

She didn't need the full minute. Within seconds it all came back to her like a full-scale tsunami: the sharks, the scorpions, the pterodactyls, the banshee, and of course, Adrien. She was still in the PHENOM. Not only that, but she was a prisoner there.

Marinette sat up slowly, combing her fingers through her hair and running her tongue over her teeth. She had never slept in the PHENOM before; she should have rumpled clothes and morning breath. But her avatar looked as fresh as ever. That was a bonus.

"I don't get it," she said to Adrien, who was still watching her. "Why was I so tired? Avatars don't need to sleep."

"Avatars don't, but our brains do," said Adrien. He picked up the blanket on his chair and began to fold it. "What's the longest you've ever played in the PHENOM?"

Marinette hesitated. She signed a PHENOM contract promising she would always abide by the "5 hours per every 24 hours" maximum.

Adrien grinned at her hesitation. "Be honest. I swear I won't tell my dad's legal department."

She grinned back and shrugged. "I don't know. . . maybe eight hours?"

"So compare that to the twenty-four hours you've been in the PHENOM this time around."

"What?" she said, standing. "I've been gone a whole day?"

"I think so, from what you've told me. That's why you were so exhausted last night. Even though your body is at rest at home, your brain keeps working here. And after all you'd been through yesterday—the maze challenges, and well, finding me—"

He paused for a second, and Marinette recalled the raging hissy fit she threw yesterday, like she was somehow channeling King Kong. A wave of embarrassment ran all the way through her and she looked away.

"Your brain was on overload," he continued. "It needed to shut down for a while—in the real world."

It made sense. "I hadn't really thought of that before," she confessed.

Adrien took the blanket from her recliner and she grabbed the other end to help him fold it.

"I hadn't either," he said, "until I totally crashed on the sidewalk one night and woke up the next morning eyeball-to-eyeball with a large pigeon."

Marinette laughed as he took the folded blanket from her and scooped up the pillows.

They left the roof and went back into the hotel, stopping by one of the rooms to return the linens he'd pilfered the night before. The hotel room was decked out in swanky furniture and boasted a panoramic view of the city. "Did you really go to the trouble of building and furnishing every single room in this hotel?"

Adrien gave a small laugh. "It wasn't as hard as it sounds," he said, as he began to make up the bed. Marinette leaned over to help him. She wasn't sure whether to find it charming or crazy that he was so intent on keeping their PHENOM prison nice and tidy. "All the rooms are identical, a simple copy and paste job," he continued. "Eventually I might recreate some of the penthouse suites, but it's not my top priority."

"I assume you mean the Let's-get-the-hell-out-of-here thing takes precedence?"

Adrien looked out the window and sighed. "Of course."

"I'm going to need to know everything," she said. "Why don't you start at the beginning?"

He nodded. "Right. Let's go somewhere else so we can talk."

As they walked along the streets, they saw fishermen, townspeople, fruit vendors, and lovers holding hands. Marinette suddenly remembered Adrien holding her hand last night and she bit her lip in embarrassment, but Adrien didn't seem to notice. He had turned inward, trying to figure out where to start his story.

"I've been working on this world for two years now," he said, looking at the buildings as they walked. "I guess you could said it's my hobby, the one place I spend most of my time when I'm not at school."

"Two years." Marinette nodded in understanding. "When your dad invents the greatest video game of all time, you don't have to wait for the official release like the rest of us."

Adrien looked almost apologetic. "I know that seems unfair—" he starts, but she cut him off.

"I would have done the same thing. My dad's a developmental artist on the PHENOM team. He lets me try new stuff all the time. Just not on a . . . scope of . . . this magnitude," she said, waving an arm at the long stretch of Paris.

"So that's why you're so good at this," Adrien said with a grin. "You inherited the video game gene from your father."

"Both my parents, really," she said, and all of a sudden she missed them horribly. "My mom, Sabine, is a scriptwriter."

"Sabine?" Adrien asked, stopping them in their tracks. "Sabine Cheng?"

"You know her?" she asked, though she was sure that couldn't be right. Sabine would have told Marinette if she'd ever met Gabriel Agreste's son.

"Well, I know of her. I use her scripts all the time. More than half the NPCs here speak Sabine Cheng-ese," he said, laughing. "She's funny as hell, your mom. Always throws in some little fun surprise. Makes the PHENOM more interesting."

Marinette was a little taken aback, and also a little ashamed of herself. She always thought of her dad's work on the PHENOM as super creative and exciting, and her mom's work as . . .well, boring.

"So both your parents are in the biz," Adrien continued. "Is that why they named you Marinette, for the water sprite boss in Sirens of the Sinister Sea?"

"God, no!" she said, giving him a small swat on the arm. "But the truth is almost as fruity. My full name is Marinette Simone Dupain-Cheng. Marinette for the city in Wisconsin I was conceived, and Simone for the famous author Simone de Beauvoir ."

"Sounds like our moms are . . .were . . . the same kind of crazy. My full name is Adrien Douady Agreste."

"No idea who Adrien Douady is," she said with a shrug. "Sorry."

Adrien laughed. "Don't worry, no one does. He was an old mathematician."

Marinette laughed. "That is almost as embarrassing as my name."

"Well, my mom's maiden name was Adrien, so I give her a pass on that one. But the 'Douady' was certainly cruel and unusual punishment." he grumbled, though he was smiling.

"Maybe Adrien is a little old-fashioned," she said, "but I give your mom an A+ for originality. Besides, Adrien's a cool name. It's yours."

They walked in silence together for a few more moments, as if they were both trying to stretch their brief carefree interlude as long as they could.

"So when did things turn bad?" Marinette asked. As much she was enjoying their walk, she knew her parents must be truly worried. She had never taken this long on the job. "Here in the PHENOM, I mean."

"Thanksgiving Day," he said. "I could tell right away that something was wrong. My usual code sounded different, a pattern I didn't recognize. When I arrived at the Lost City, I thought about stopping at the main control panel to make sure everything was all right, but the damn Christmas in the PHENOM promotion started that day, and I just wanted to get the hell out of there."

Marinette snorted at that, and Adrien raised his eyebrows at her.

"My dad was lead developer on Christmas in the PHENOM," she explained.

"No offense to your dad," he hurried to explain. "It's my dad I was annoyed with. Christmas in the PHENOM and this one-year anniversary has consumed him for months. I've hardly seen him. And once again, he bailed on me for Thanksgiving."

"I get it, believe me," she said, pushing her hair behind her ears as a breeze swept over them. "You should know though, your dad feels bad about that."

Adrien shrugged and his face turned unreadable. "So anyway, I left the Lost City in a hurry and walked through the portal. I came through the wardrobe, then immediately left the bedroom. I was heading down the stairs when I heard a noise."

He paused and Marinette raised her eyebrows at him in question.

"An impossible noise," he said, looking out at the city again.

Marinette continued to stare at him, trying to be patient. "What do you mean an impossible noise?" she finally said, unable to wait any longer.

He turned to face her again. "I heard someone open and shut the wardrobe door."

Overhead the sky cracked loudly and a bolt of lightning shot down directly in front of them. Marinette screamed and jumped backwards, colliding with Adrien. The static in the air made their arm hair stand on end.

In the spot where the lightning struck, instead of scorched earth, there was a person that looked less than human. There were sparks coming off of the person and they seemed to glow. "I am Voltage!" shouted the form.

"Uh...is this guy something you programmed?" Marinette asked warily, staring at the villain.

Adrien slowly shook his head no. "Let's...run?" he suggested.

They both turned to leave, but found themselves frozen in place. A loud voice over sounded. "Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Hawkmoth. I have created a series of villains that I will release into the PHENOM against only the most worthy of players. Once defeated, the enemies will only get harder. I will be the first player to complete the PHENOM game, and I will go down in history as the best player of all time. Good luck."

The words flashed purple across the sky and their avatars stood still until his monologue finished.

Adrien glanced quickly at Voltage, advancing slowly on their avatars. "Marinette...your gamer tag is something with Ladybug, right?"

Marinette nodded. "Yeah. MiraculousLadybug, that's me. Why?"

Adrien smiled. "I don't suppose you're familiar with the old tales of the Miraculous Ladybug and her dashing partner, Chat Noir, are you?"

She frowned slightly. "The old crime-fighting pair from the 1920s? They're just some legend. But, it's a super cool legend. Which is where I got my name from. What does that have to do with anything, Adrien? We're being hunted by some lightning slinging lunatic right now. I don't think it's time for a history lesson!"

He shook his head. "It's your lucky day. My tag happens to be Chat Noir. And because I coded this whole town to be just like France was back then, I _may_ have implemented a Ladybug and Chat Noir protocol so I can pretend to crime fight. And I think we're going to need to power up now. So, to do that, you need to yell the voice command, "Spots on!"

Marinette was hesitant to yell the command, but trusting Adrien seemed like the smartest thing to do in the moment. It was his world, after all, and she was only being held captive in it.

"Spots on!" she shouted. Immediately her body was engulfed in a rain of pink sparkles, and she looked down to find herself clothed in a red bodysuit with black spots, reminiscent of a ladybug. Her trusty yo-yo was at her hip, also decked out in the red and black.

Adrien let out a low whistle. "Man, whoever programmed that did a great job." His eyes followed up her body to her eyes. Their eyes made contact. He winked.

Voltage was slinking closer, mirth in his eyes as he watched the singular superhero.

Marinette glanced at Adrien. "Well, partner, it's time for you to suit up."

Letting out a commanding "Claws out!" a fluorescent green lit Adrien from head to toe, engulfing his casual jeans and a t-shirt outfit and transforming him into a sleek black cat suit. Ears appeared on his head, and a black domino mask covered nearly half of his face. From behind his back, he pulled out a baton.

"Are you ready to fight some crime, my lady?" he asked cheekily.

Marinette grimaced, recalling her time in the maze. "Not particularly, but I don't think we get a choice."

And with that, the pair took off sprinting toward Voltage.

Immediately, he took aim at the pair and blasted them back with a jolt of lightning. They flew through the air, bodies twitching from the blast.

"Well...that was shocking."

"Shut up, you mangy cat!"

"Meow-ch. Just trying to lighten up the situation."

Adrien as Chat Noir ran forward, dodging lightning strikes left and right. Reaching Voltage, he threw punch after punch. The villain met each strike with his own hands.

Marinette was able to see what he was doing. By keeping his hands occupied, Ladybug would be able to advance without the thunderbolts being thrown her way. iVery smart, Chaton./i

She was still unsure of what to do. "Hey! Yell out Lucky Charm!"

"Like the cereal?"

"Just do it!"

She shouted the command and out of the sky dropped a pair of rubber kitchen gloves. How would they benefit her? Her vision went grayscale, except for her hands, her yo-yo, and the villain. A-ha!

Marinette placed the gloves on her hands to absorb the electrical shocks she was sure to encounter. She wound up her now magical yo-yo, getting force behind her swing. Adrien had managed to turn Voltage around in their skirmish, darting from blows and landing quite a few of his own.

Quickly running up to the pair, Ladybug lassoed Voltage in the string. He struggled and tried to escape, his arms pinned to his sides. Once it became clear he was trapped, the game froze again. Voltage exploded in a mass of butterflies- no, moths- and a yell of rage was heard, presumably of this Hawkmoth man. His villain had been defeated.

From Marinette, even in her frozen state, her super suit began dispensing hundreds of little red lights- ladybugs!- that immediately reset the town to the way it was before the attack. "Woah," she breathed out in awe. "It's amazing! No, it's-"

"Miraculous," Chat Noir offered with a small smile. Marinette saw the bruises forming on his cheeks suddenly disappear as he was wrapped in the red lights.

"Yeah."

Adrien held out a closed fist in her direction. "Pound it?"

She smirked and bumped his knuckles.

"Y'know, making the guy explode like that was mean. You're evil," Adrien said, jokingly.

Marinette grinned and shook her head. "Chaotic Neutral, sugar."


End file.
